- name
- http-status
- description
- HTTP status code reference — instant lookup of any status code with meaning, common causes, and fix suggestions. Use when the user asks about an HTTP status code, gets an error response from an API, or needs to understand what a 4xx/5xx means. Covers all RFC-standard codes plus WebDAV, Nginx, Cloudflare, and common unofficial codes. No API key, no network — fully offline lookup table.
- version
- 1.0.0
- license
- MIT-0
- metadata
- openclaw
- emoji
- 🔢
HTTP Status Code Reference
Instant lookup for any HTTP status code — meaning, common causes, and how to fix it. Full data table in references/codes.md. Zero dependencies, fully offline.
When to use
- "What does 429 mean?"
- "I'm getting a 502 from my API, what's wrong?"
- "What's the difference between 401 and 403?"
- "Which 5xx errors are retryable?"
- "What does Cloudflare 524 mean?"
Code ranges (quick orientation)
1xx Informational — request received, continue processing
2xx Success — request was received, understood, accepted
3xx Redirection — further action needed to complete the request
4xx Client Error — request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled
5xx Server Error — server failed to fulfil an apparently valid requestLookup procedure
- Check
references/codes.mdfor the exact code - If not found, infer from the range (4xx = client error, 5xx = server error)
- Note the source category: RFC standard / WebDAV / Nginx / Cloudflare / unofficial
- Return: meaning + common causes + recommended action
Output format
Single code lookup
🔢 HTTP 429 — Too Many Requests
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Category: 4xx Client Error
Standard: RFC 6585
Meaning: The user has sent too many requests in a given time (rate limiting).
Common causes:
• API rate limit exceeded
• Burst traffic hitting a throttling policy
• Forgot to handle Retry-After header
What to do:
• Check the Retry-After response header for wait time
• Implement exponential backoff in your client
• Review your request frequency and add throttling logic
• Consider caching responses to reduce request volume
Related codes: 503 (server overloaded)Comparison query
🔢 401 vs 403
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
401 Unauthorized
→ Authentication is required and has failed or not been provided
→ "You need to log in first"
→ Fix: provide valid credentials / token
403 Forbidden
→ Server understood the request but refuses to authorize it
→ "You're logged in but don't have permission"
→ Fix: check user roles/permissions, contact admin
Key difference:
401 = identity unknown (not authenticated)
403 = identity known but access denied (not authorized)Retryable codes
✅ Generally safe to retry (with backoff):
408 Request Timeout
429 Too Many Requests ← respect Retry-After header
500 Internal Server Error ← transient server issues
502 Bad Gateway ← upstream temporarily unavailable
503 Service Unavailable ← server overloaded/maintenance
504 Gateway Timeout ← upstream timeout
❌ Do NOT retry blindly:
400 Bad Request ← fix your request first
401 Unauthorized ← re-authenticate first
403 Forbidden ← retrying won't help
404 Not Found ← resource doesn't exist
422 Unprocessable Entity ← fix validation errors firstNotes
- For Nginx-specific codes (444, 494-499) and Cloudflare codes (520-530), see
references/codes.md - 418 "I'm a teapot" is a real RFC 2324 status — implemented as an Easter egg in some servers
- Some codes (e.g. 103, 425, 451) are newer and may not be supported by all clients/proxies